No one this side of Mike Scioscia and Mike Butcher appreciates Weaver as much as this writer, but some good can come of it.

Sure, it's a devastating blow, especially coming when Albert Pujols was beginning to resemble Albert Pujols, but barring long-range implications to Weaver's health, it's not the end of the world as we know it.

The Angels can find out just how ready Garrett Richards is, for example.

The Orioles got their first 3-game sweep since June 6-8 when they finished off Minnesota, but they were grieving over the death of 59-year-old Mike Flanagan, former Orioles lefty, broadcaster and general manager.

Flanagan was the 1979 American League Cy Young Award winner with 23 victories and went 167-143 with a 1.334 WHIP and a 3.90 ERA.

October 19th, 2010, 12:08 pm by Sam Miller, The Orange County Register

Today I counted down the worst Angels' pitching seasons ever, with Scott Kazmir sneaking in at No. 15. Interesting thing, though: If you want to be on a list like this, it helps to be bad, but it's not actually necessary. There are good pitchers on the list, pitchers who were good before, pitchers who were good after. Our 15 pitchers' cumulative ERA returned almost to normal the year after the disaster season. Here they are, as a group, with the year before the disaster season, then the disaster season, then the year after:

And, now, broken up by pitcher. It's not a very pretty chart, but you can see the general pattern: OK, then Awful, then back to OK.

Basically, a large portion of the suck looks like random fluctuation, or perhaps injuries, or perhaps some other factors going on in their lives, or perhaps a million other variables we can't consider -- in other words, ephemeral badness. Many of these pitchers would go back to being, if not as good as before, at least useful Major League pitchers.

"'I actually thought it was a catfish at first, that it grazed me. I didn't think much of it,' Rodriguez said. 'And then I got out of the water, and I was like whoooaaaa.'

"It wasn't a catfish, of course, but a stingray that had decided to give Rodriguez a swat on the back of the heel."

Let's use this to check in with the three players the Angels gave up for Scott Kazmir:

• Rodriguez won the starting job out of spring training after demolishing low-level pitching, but has struggled in the big leagues. Sound familiar? He's started 10 of the Rays' 20 games in May, and his season line (.214/.263/.343) is awful even for a utility guy. He has struck out every 2.4 at bats. Advanced fielding metrics say he's been pretty good wherever he's played, which has included second base, shortstop, all three outfield positions and ever so briefly third base.

Sean Rodriguez hit his fifth Grapefruit League home run Tuesday for the Tampa Bay Rays, a two-run shot off Boston's Junichi Tazawa.

Rodriguez played shortstop again; he likely is battling Reid Brignac for the starting second base job, since All-Star Ben Zobrist might open the season in right field because of a Matt Joyce injury. ...

Severe shoulder pain drove Florida reliever Derrick Turnbow from the mound Tuesday, hurting his chances of making the Marlins as a non-roster player. ...